RUSSIAN-VIETNAMESE MILITARY-TECHNICAL COOPERATION: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR RUSSIA

Vietnam plays important role in Russian policy in the Asia-Pacific region. Military-technical cooperation holds special position in Russian-Vietnamese relations. The aim of the article is the detection of the special features of military-technical cooperation between Russia and Vietnam, and also challenges and opportunities it provides for Russian policy. After the collapse of the USSR defense interaction between Russia and Vietnam was determined by commercial foundations. Vietnam needed new Russian weapons to protect its interests, first of all, in the South China Sea. For Moscow military-technical cooperation with Vietnam got economic significance. But later there was a rise of political dimension of cooperation in this sphere, influenced by some external factors. The period of the 2000-2010s was marked by growth of arms sales from Russia to Vietnam. It was mostly caused by the escalation of the South China Sea conflict, for which US-Chinese contradictions began to play an increasing role. Military-technical coopera-tion with Vietnam influenced some aspects of policy of Russia in the region. There was an increase of indi-rect involvement of Russia into the South China Sea conflict. Russian arms sales for Vietnam became one of problems in Russian-Chinese relations. But Russia and China could cope with these disputes, partly because of enlargement of their interaction in international relations, including the demonstration of similar position for some aspects of the South China Sea conflict. In the framework of development of defense cooperation with Vietnam, Russia could get special conditions of access to facilities of Cam Ranh Bay that strengthened its strategic positions in the region. Russian cooperation with Hanoi in military-technical field and general reinforcement of Russian positions in Vietnam might be also a reason for contradictions with the US